Talk:Girl Meets STEM/@comment-26704754-20160115004505/@comment-26999065-20160120033529
I’m not even sure a patriarchy would necessarily be an antifeministic system since the one and only job precluded from women would be the one at the very top – the head of state. That’s one job. It could, in theory, be better for women in every other way – like that head guy might make all the other men slaves but the women all have it much better. I doubt it would be that way, but my point is if a man is in charge that doesn’t necessarily mean they will short change the women, so I think technically one should not call a patriarchy antifeministic. I wouldn’t call the U.S. antifeministic either simply because the current president is a man, or even that no president here has yet been a woman. A matriarchy also wouldn’t necessarily be against men or short change them. All these two types of systems do is one thing – fix the gender of the head of state. It doesn’t necessarily elevate or lower one single thing about the roles of men and women in the system in all other areas. Regardless, Auggie didn’t get any advantage from being a guy. I’m pretty sure all participants got the same trophy regardless of gender, and that segment of the show wasn’t about feminism or equal rights between the sexes, but about, well, arranging things so they might more resemble a meritocracy – you get what you merit or you actually earned and deserved. It was a comment on the stupidity of treating our kids in such a manner, where merit counts for nothing. If the writer or director or whoever wanted the Auggie/Ava skit to be about gender bias or gender inequality, then he/she failed spectacularly. Nowhere was it even suggested Auggie being a boy or Ava being a girl made a bit of difference. I think they just wanted to comment on a stupid trend in many schools today – trying to spare everyone’s feelings by not rewarding merit or excellence, which might imply, to those who didn’t merit anything, that they were being punished, and that might hurt their delicate feelings, and we should never do that. Sheesh. The results of awarding trophies for participation and not merit, the writers seem to claim, might lead one to not try to improve, just like Auggie wanted before Ava convinced him otherwise. Also, one can’t learn to win well and be a good winner, or lose well and be a good loser - not in this case since they did seem to keep score so there were winners and losers, but in some cases those little kid teams don’t even keep score so they can avoid even that much of a negative feeling. The Ava/Auggie subplot might tie back to the main story inasmuch and both stories encourage individuals to do their best and to not do less just because they may get a reward anyway – like getting an A for merely dropping a marble but doing no science in science class. Getting an A is nice, but you’re not in school to get A’s – you’re in school to get an education. If you get an A and learned nothing, you have actually failed in the larger scheme of things. In the Ava/Auggie storyline, they might be suggesting in some way that people, maybe particularly women, begin to learn to do less there since they are USUALLY less physically capable than boys in some sports. Not so much at that age, but later, and certainly not all sports, but some. But if they learned early on what Auggie almost learned - to give up and look for something eaiser to do - they might carry such a lesson to middleschool and classes about STEM subjects and give up early since they'll get the same grade as the guy anyway - at least in this instance. More tradtionally, girls might be made to feel unfeminine if they excell at science, or less attractive to guys if they are smarter than the guys, and so they just don't try. However it happens, for whatever reasons, too many girls begin to avoid STEM subjects, and this episode points out the problem. In either case, giving up early, not trying your best, or letting others do the hard work, are all discouraged. Do it yourself. Learn it yourself. Earn it yourself. You'll be glad you did. I'm pretty sure that was the lesson there.